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Jun. 29th, 2018 08:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogIn the wake of Harlan Ellison's death, a FB friend told a story about him. Ellison was at a convention and said friend (SF) had been listening to him talk at various events. At one talk later in the run of the convention, SF was listening and nodding as Ellison talked about a particular thing from a book. Ellison saw him and said, to paraphrase, 'You've been doing that all weekend, but I don't think you've really read all these books. You're just trying to look like you know what you're talking about.' SF summarized the next part of the book that Ellison was talking about, and Ellison acknowledged that SF had, in fact, read those book. SF said that this was a real ego boost for him, to be affirmed in that way.
I commented that, while I might be missing something, this seemed to me like the kind of gatekeeping that a lot of fen are, justifiably, decrying these days. A community member expresses understanding and familiarity with a piece of media, and another community member responds by accusing the first person of having a reaction based on something superficial; of being a fake fan.
SF responded and said that I was entirely missing the point. I said that that was fair, and I would like to understand what the point actually was. And then, as best as I can tell, he deleted the comment chain.
I interpret actions like that an an expression that someone is not interested in my opinions or in having meaningful conversations with me, so I saved everyone aggravation and unfriended him.
I unfriended his partner soon after Charles Manson died. Someone responded to a news article about it by expressing some kind of hope that he would be redeemed in heaven or something (I forget exactly), and SF's partner responded very critically to that comment, attacking the person for it.
Maybe shrinking of my friends list will also encourage me to spend less time on Facebook! Of course, this also probably explains part of why I don't seem to have a lot of online social-media friends....
I commented that, while I might be missing something, this seemed to me like the kind of gatekeeping that a lot of fen are, justifiably, decrying these days. A community member expresses understanding and familiarity with a piece of media, and another community member responds by accusing the first person of having a reaction based on something superficial; of being a fake fan.
SF responded and said that I was entirely missing the point. I said that that was fair, and I would like to understand what the point actually was. And then, as best as I can tell, he deleted the comment chain.
I interpret actions like that an an expression that someone is not interested in my opinions or in having meaningful conversations with me, so I saved everyone aggravation and unfriended him.
I unfriended his partner soon after Charles Manson died. Someone responded to a news article about it by expressing some kind of hope that he would be redeemed in heaven or something (I forget exactly), and SF's partner responded very critically to that comment, attacking the person for it.
Maybe shrinking of my friends list will also encourage me to spend less time on Facebook! Of course, this also probably explains part of why I don't seem to have a lot of online social-media friends....
